Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Women defeated the U SPORTS No. 2 ranked Saint Mary's Huskies 3-1 Saturday night to move into a share of first place in the AUS standings.
Both the X-Women and Huskies have identical 18-5-1 records with 37 points apiece.
The win was the eighth consecutive regular season victory for the X-Women, dating back to November 29th.
X-Women forward Tyra Meropoulis (Edson, AB) netted the game winner for the X-Women 6:40 into the third period then added an empty netter to add to her U SPORTS leading scoring tally. Her 33 points and 24 goals are tops in both the AUS and all of U SPORTS.
The game winning goal came after Meropoulis brought the puck into the Huskies zone, eluded her defenders and let a shot go from the top of the face-off circle that handcuffed Rebecca Clark (Keswick, ON) in the Huskies net.
StFX trailed 1-0 after the first period as Huskies forward Shae Demale (Red Deer, AB) scored at 17:42. Miranda Hatt (Eastern Passage, NS) dug the puck out of the corner and dished the pass out front to Demale who backhanded it past X netminder Jamie Johnson (Victoria, BC).
The Huskies outshot the X-Women 14-8 in the opening frame.
Their lead did not last long however, as Lea MacLeod (Dartmouth, NS) tied it up 40 seconds into the second period. After good pressure by the X-Women to keep the puck in the Huskies zone and a couple shots on goal, MacLeod picked up her own rebound, circled around and beat Clark on a high shot over her glove-side shoulder.
Both teams had their share of scoring chances in the second period with the X-Women outshooting the visitors 16-7 as the 1-1 tie held up after 40 minutes.
The third period brought more close action and following the Meropoulis goal both goaltenders were on their game as the Huskies pressed for the equalizer and the X-Women attempted to hold onto the lead.
Saint Mary's outshot the X-Women 11-7 in the third but could not even the score. Clark was pulled from the net in favour of the extra attacker with just over a minute left but Meropoulis sealed the StFX victory with the empty net goal at 19:27.
Final shots were fairly even at 32-31 for the Huskies.
Clark earned the nod as the third star of the game, Johnson was second star and Meropoulis was the first star and Subway player of the game.
Saint Mary's will be back in action Wednesday night, January 29th when they host Mount Allison.
StFX travel to Fredericton on Friday, January 31st to play St. Thomas.
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Courtesy StFX Sports Information